Tennessee Titans quarterback Ryan Tannehill raised some eyebrows when he said he it was not his job to mentor rookie quarterback Malik Willis, after the Titans drafted him in the third round of the 2022 NFL Draft, but feels his comments were blown out of proportion.
Tannehill now says he will be a “great teammate” to Willis.
“I meant no disrespect to Malik or anything like that,” Tannehill said, according to ESPN’s Turron Davenport. “We’ve been in constant communication since he was drafted. I’m disappointed in how things got spun and twisted a little bit. I pride myself on being a great teammate my whole career going back to when I was a kid playing youth sports.”
Tannehill explained that he and Willis have been in communication since.
“As soon as it blew up I reached out to him and said, ‘Hey, I’m going to be a great teammate to you, I’m going to support you. They’re making this out to something that it’s not to be. It’s not what it’s been made out to be at all,'” he said. “He’s been good. He was great with it throughout the whole time. It’s been great to have him in the room and build that relationship.”
Tannehill went on to express how important and serious the word mentor is to him.
“There’s a few people that I count as mentors. There’s hundreds of people that helped me out throughout my career but there’s only a few people that I would consider mentors. A mentorship is something that both people have to want, both people have to agree to enter into that and it’s going to have to take a lot of time, energy and focus,” Tannehill said.
Willis says things are fine between him and the current Titans starter.
“It’s been cool,” Willis said. “He’s a great guy that works super hard and wants everybody to get their work. He’s definitely someone that you can look up to.”
